


Four’s Father and The Festival

by Legends_Trauma



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Genre: Also Erune shows up for like a whole two minutes, Festival, Fluff, Found Family, Four (Linked Universe)-centric, Four trying desperately to both enjoy himself and avoid said father, Gen, Headcanon, Headcanon where Wars is Four’s father, Piccori Festival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 22:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30079359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legends_Trauma/pseuds/Legends_Trauma
Summary: The heroes land in Four’s Hyrule just in time for the Piccori Festival, and he can’t wait to show them around- on one condition: they avoid his father. What is the Smithy hiding? And why could it be so important that they don’t bump into his old man?Explore an absolutely timeline destroying headcanon long held by me: that Four’s Captain of the Guard father from the Four Sword’s manga is none other than our beloved Captain himself, and see how these headmates handle having dear young dad back in their homeland in “Four’s Father and the Festival.”
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	Four’s Father and The Festival

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! As always, feel free to tag me in any arts you may be inspired to create! Legend’s Trauma in LU Discord and @artandarson on Insta!

Four was dizzy. Not the dizziest he’d ever been but certainly dizzy. He didn’t like this shifting between worlds thing too much. It made him nauseous, and what was worse than the physical feeling was all of his- no, their- wildly different reactions to the experience. The nausea bothered Red so much he wanted to cry. The experience just ticked Blue off so badly that it put him on edge, and he couldn’t talk to the rest of them without snapping at them. Green didn’t like the disorientation they all felt in their body or the tension between all of them in their head, but he still felt compelled to keep the peace. The atmosphere of confusion in their head just made Vio want to bail out and split, but he knew better than everyone that splitting wasn’t an option. Because of this chaos within them, Vio usually took it upon himself to front at times like this. It kept the chaos inside, the suspicion of the other heroes away, and it let him get some space of his own.

Having left the others so far in the back that he was the only one looking through their eyes, although the others were never so far from fronting that they couldn’t hear- in most cases all of them fronted at once, Vio took note of his surroundings. First, Vio noticed the other Links sprawled across the ground just as disoriented as himself. Well, not his other Links, but the other other Links. As if his life had not been confusing enough before they showed up at his front door. As much as Four knew they were needed, Vio truly would’ve preferred to have never left their forge. But, he thought. What must be done must be done. Next, he noticed their location. He looked up at Hyrule Castle. His Hyrule Castle. They had landed right in the middle of the courtyard. 

“Oh gosh. I hope Zelda didn’t see us fall from the sky,” he muttered under his breath. “Or my father at that.”

“Four?” Twilight asked, pulling himself up from the dirt. “Do you know where we are?” Vio looked back at him and shrugged.

“Unfortunately, I do,” he answered. “Welcome to Castle Town. We’ve all just landed right in the King’s front yard.” The heroes looked around at each other and hurried to their feet, trying to make themselves look as presentable as is possible for a group of people who just fell out of the sky. “Don’t worry too much about your appearances. We’re not going inside. We should head into town.”

“You make it sound like you aren’t welcome at the castle, Smithy,” remarked Legend. “Want to clue us in on what that’s about?”

“That’s not it at all,” replied Vio. “In fact there are quite a few people who probably wish I’d be at the castle more often. I simply hope to avoid running into the Captain of the Guard, if that’s alright with you.”

“Why?” asked Warriors. “Who’s the Captain of the Guard here?” Vio sent a cold glare his way.

“My father.”

The boys headed south into town and were immediately swarmed by the town's children coming from the schoolhouse.

“Link!!” The mass of them cheered happily as they ran over to Four. “Link is back! Link is back!”

Vio smiled slightly, but remained calm and poised as he addressed the children, not at all talking down to them but rather speaking to them as if they were adults themselves.

“Now what are you doing running out of school so early?” he said. “Certainly the headmaster will chastise you for such a thing.”

“Link, did you forget?” asked one little boy as he wiped the snot from his nose. “The Piccori festival begins tonight. Headmaster sent us home early.”

“Oh, of course,” replied Vio. “Silly me. My calendar seems to be all out of whack. Well, I suppose my friends and I will have to join you all at the festival then.” The children cheered again. A little girl tugged at the edge of his tunic.

“Will Red come out and play with us?” she asked sweetly.

“Can Blue help me practice for my class with Master Swiftblade?” a boy piped up.

“Vio and Shadow are going to tell us a story again, won’t they?” asked another child.

Vio looked back at his fellow heroes, who were more than confused. Then he looked at the puppy dog eyed children. He sighed.

“Maybe,” he answered them honestly. “Maybe not. I suppose that after the grown ups are all gone off to the tournament they may all get the chance to come and play, but it certainly does depend upon a lot of things.” Vio was unsure whether he and the others that shared his body were ready to let the heroes in on their secret. And he had been keeping it from the townspeople as well, only the children knew, and their parents simply wrote it all off as a silly story Link must’ve told them. He paused. “It’s a wonder none of you asked for Green.” The girl who had tugged at his tunic before spoke quitetly.

“We all talked at recess,” she said. “We figure Green wants to go play with Zelda.” Vio smiled.

“He probably does, but that likely depends too.”

“Depends on what?” asked the snot-nosed boy. Vio leaned down to whisper to him.

“Depends on if Green has to spend time with our friends, or has to keep our dad away from them, but if he has time, yes, he will probably spend that time with Zelda.”

“He likes her.” The little girl whispered and giggled.

“Yes, I think he does,” Vio whispered and smiled back.

“Like you and Shadow!” Shouted the boy. Vio blushed. All the children laughed. So even the children knew then. Lovely. He paused in thought yet again.

“How’d you know it was me?” he asked the boy calmly.

“You talk smart,” he said. “And you’re just super cool.” Vio laughed.

“It sounds like you spend too much time with Red.” The children laughed and chatted, but soon, their parents came and called for them and they went home to get ready for the long opening night of the festival.

The adults of castle town had long beloved Four just as much as the children had, but in a different way. While the children knew and believed that magical truth behind Four’s peculiarity of behavior, the adults would simply never believe it. The Four weren’t surprised though. When the four of them came home as him, they knew they’d struggle to get along in one body. They knew they’d seem strange or even insane to most of the townspeople from now on. They knew the grownups would never believe what they had encountered. Because that was just the nature of grownups. Most grownups were simply unable to believe in the fantastic. The Piccori themselves had taught Four so when they went on their first adventure and traveled throughout the Piccori’s very big, very small world. Adults couldn’t see the Piccori, but even at their present age of nineteen, Four could. What did that say about them? Had they not matured? Certainly, they had. They simply hadn’t lost the ability to believe in the impossible.

“What in the world were they talking to you about?” remarked the Captain about the children, pulling Vio from his thoughts. “Playing with people named after colors? How strange.” Vio sighed. He didn’t expect much from the Captain but this was a new low. None of the Four were particularly proud of their names- save Red- but Red had come up with them so as bad as they were, to insult their names was like messing with Red, and NO ONE messed with their Red.

The others who occupied Vio’s head must’ve sensed the attack on Red’s naming ability (which was objectively very poor but also rather endearing and sentimental to all of them and not just Vio). And they quickly came towards the front with their own ideas of how to handle the situation.

Oh, that’s it! Blue went off inside their head. Today’s the day! Today’s the day we show that stupid Captain who’s boss!

Please don’t fight! cried Red, trying to hold back his tears. It’ll only make things worse. Besides if father finds us you know he’ll be mad at us for lashing out at Wars.

Red, said Green. You’re right that we shouldn’t fight him, especially considering our current situation, but we can’t let him get away with making fun of us all the time. If we can’t stand up to him now, we never will!

Vio sighed. They had all made fine points. In the end, Vio decided that he ought to stand up to the Captain after all, just not in the way Blue wanted him to.

“This is precisely what I was just thinking about,” Vio shot back at the Captain. “It is adults like you who forget how to be children that are the root of many of the problems this world faces.” Everyone looked at Four with great shock. The heroes knew he was bold, and they knew he was quite content to speak his mind. Even so, telling the Captain he was what was wrong with the world was maybe a little too personal of a jab. What could have possibly irritated Four to this extent?

“I-” the Captain began to defend himself. Vio didn’t allow him the luxury.

“And on top of that,” he continued. “Such a remark is very bold coming from a man who nicknamed himself Warriors. Warrior itself is a lousy nickname, but Warriors plural? It’s an absolute shame.” The group let out a chuckle.

“You’re names aren’t exactly any better, you know!” Wars attacked his mockers. “I mean, Hyrule? We’re all from Hyrule. And Legend? What kind of poser names himself Legend?”

“Actually, Captain,” Legend replied, still wearing a smirk. “The goddess Nayru dubbed me Hero of Legend and told me I would become the greatest of all of you.” 

“No way!” exclaimed Hyrule. “That’s so cool!” The Captain rolled his eyes.

“Still sounds poserish to me,” he mumbled. “And your names aren’t the only bad ones either. I mean at least Sky and Wild sound vaguely like real names, and Time and Wind are your actual titles. But Four? Where did you even come up with that? How is that fitting at all?”

“Firstly,” Vio replied. “Four does come from my Hero title. I’m the Hero of the Four Sword. Secondly, it’s far more fitting than you realize but you aren’t entitled to that explanation, and I won’t be giving it to you.” Vio paused. He took a deep breath. He knew when to end an argument. He had gotten his chance to knock Wars off of his high horse and now it was time to calm down. There was no point to overkill. He looked down the street, and around Castle Town. He had missed it. Even before he left home with the other bearers of the Spirit of Courage, he didn’t come into town often. Since the adults often thought of him as strange he was typically very uncomfortable in town by himself, but he would go sometimes to see the children, or with Master Smith, or with Zelda, or when Erune came to visit. He loved Castle Town dearly. He just didn’t love being the subject of gossip. “Now. Moving on,” he said. “Why don’t I show you all around?”

Out of the corner of his eye Vio caught sight of the bakery, and that was all it took. Straight to the front came Red, as excited as a child at their own birthday party, ready to lead the pack towards some of his favorite sweets. On this lighter note all four of the occupants of Red’s head came very close to the front close enough to see and hear everything that was going on, but Red had the lead.

Hey, try not to embarrass us, grouched Blue in their head.

Red just laughed and smiled to himself as he ran down the cobblestone streets towards the bakery. They were home, and home was safe. He was taking his newest group of friends to his favorite places. The festival was tonight, and they could sing and dance and play all the games they wanted to. Things were looking up. As long as father didn’t find them.

“Hello there!” called Pita happily as the group of them walked into the store. “It’s good to see you again, Link! And look, Wheaton! He’s brought many friends this time!” Wheaton looked up temporarily from the dough he was rolling to inspect the heroes, gave a little “Hmm” to himself and then went back to rolling. “We’re always happy to see you, Link!” Pita went on cheerfully. “Although sometimes we worry you’ll buy out the whole store!” She laughed. But the heroes could tell that something in her eyes was being very honest. Four was here often, and he bought A LOT.

“How strange,” remarked Time. “I didn’t think of you as the type who liked sweets.” 

“Me?” Red asked sincerely. “Of course I like sweets! They’re my favorite!”

Hey, Clouds-for-Brains! Blue yelled at him. Don’t tell them stuff like that or they’re gonna feed all of us garbage!

That’s right. Red thought. Blue didn’t like sweets, and Vio liked sweets with his tea but that was about it. Green was pretty impartial when it came to most food. He had to remember his brothers’ opinions too when saying stuff like that out loud.

“Actually,” Red corrected himself. “I really like sweets sometimes, and I could eat a whole bunch of them at those times! But other times I’m just…. not in the mood for them, I guess? It’s hard to explain. In any case-” he turned towards Pita. “We’ll take one of everything. No! Two of everything in case more than one person wants to try something!”

“Isn’t that a lot of food for just the lot of us, Smithy?” Twilight asked him.

“No way!” Wild interjected. “Wind and I can pick up where all of y’all start slacking.” He turned to the younger teen and gave him a high five. They laughed, but they were also entirely serious.

“See?” Red responded. “It’ll be fine! This way everyone can eat what they want and if they’re are any leftovers, we could give them to some of the village kids. I bet they’d love that!”

“It’s sweet to see how close you are to the children here, Four,” Hyrule commented. “The villages in my homeland don’t really have that many kids in them, and even if you do meet families, they’re very wary of strangers and travelers, so I’ve never gotten to have that experience.” Red’s heart broke a little for Roolie at that. Hyrule was so nice, one of his best friends, one of all four of their best friends, and he’d be a natural around kids. It was a shame he never got to spend much time around them. Then, Red had an idea. He ran it past the others in his headspace first.

No! Blue blurted out immediately. Red, we can’t. NONE of them can see us like that.

I hate to admit it, Red, Vio added. But Blue isn’t entirely wrong. It’s important that this secret stays up our sleeve right now. Though I suppose a few of them may be trustworthy.

If we’re careful about who we let see it and who we don’t, we should be fine, agreed Green. We just need to send the less trustworthy heroes with the older heroes to the Sword Tournament. Then, the younger ones can stay with us and play with the kids.

Content with this compromise, Red looked at Hyrule and smiled before announcing his plans for the evening.

“Well, I was hoping to take all of you to the Sword Tournament tonight at the Piccori Festival,” he began. “But I think some of us ought to spend the evening with the children.”

“Baby sitting?” Legend asked. “Yeah, no thanks.” Red lost his focus for a second and Blue slipped casually into the front. 

“Well then,” he said. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t inviting YOU, dipshi-”

“There’s no need to frustrate each other,” Time stepped in. “A group of us will stay and play with the children and the rest can attend that sword fighting tournament. We ought not make it a bigger deal than it actually is.”

Time was right as usual, but even so, he didn’t realize what a big deal this already was to Four- to Blue. All four of them wanted to play with the children, yes. But even more so, all four of them longed for the moment that they could split again. Being stuck in one head was exhausting and annoying, and they had been stuck like that everyday for the last few months in an attempt to hide their secret, but they were starting to get sloppy. If they stayed together too long the others would find out even sooner than if they split, or even worse they too would decide that Four was crazy. Certainly they already assumed he was some level of insane, and perhaps his brain was very diverse from theirs, but this hardly made him crazy. 

We’re twice the hero half of these losers are, Blue thought to himself. No- FOUR times! Especially when it comes to that lousy Captain. Pretty good for nothing if you ask me. Green interjected and spooked Blue, who had nearly forgotten the split had not yet occurred and his brothers could indeed still hear his thoughts.

Come on, Blue, Green chastised him. Sure, he bothers all of us. Because we’re older, right? And now we realize that there were a lot of places that he messed up, but we still love him. Afterall, he is our-

DING. The bell on the door chimed as a young lady entered the bakery. She had beautiful shoulder length auburn hair and big eyes, and she wore a simple white frock. She was maybe a little plain to some, but her features were lovely. Like a doll, whispered some of the heroes to one another. Blue looked over at her and smiled.

“Erune!” he exclaimed. The girl glanced up upon hearing her name, and a wide smile spread across her face as well. She ran across the room and hugged her dear friend.

“It’s so good to see you!” She said happily, still in his embrace. “Lemme guess,” she added as she pulled away from the hug. “Blue?”

“How-” he started.

“You sounded a little too excited about seeing me,” Erune replied with a giggle. “But not the Red kind of excited.”

“Well, gee, Erune…” The mumbling poured from his mouth like a flood almost as fast as the blush flooded his face.

“This your girlfriend?” teased the Captain.

“Is that your-” Erune began.

“No,” Blue said to both, unsure whether either answer could be considered telling the truth as both appeared to be lies, even lies to himself. Erune looked at him with a smirk and raised one eyebrow. Then, she burst out laughing. Blue sighed. Yeah… she could see right through him. Whatever.

Blue rushed through an introduction between the heroes and Erune before paying Pita for the bag of Red’s sweets and then leading the group out towards the center of town where they all sat down on or around the water fountain to eat.

“Aren’t you gonna eat any, Four?” asked Wind. “You did buy them.” Blue paused. It probably did look a little strange that he wasn’t eating the baked goods that “he” had picked out, he didn’t even like them himself and if he ate Red’s food Red was sure to cry. 

“I plan to save mine for later.” He decided that was both the safest answer and a true one. When we split, he thought. Red can eat it then. Wind shrugged. Blue knew he was confused. He hoped that Wind would be in the group who stayed and played festival games with the children, and then it’d make sense for him. 

The Castle Town bells began to toll and just like that people started pouring through the gates and out of houses for the festival. Slowly at first, but with every minute the pace quickened. Erune waved goodbye and promised to catch up with Four later as she had errands to attend to. Soon the town was loud and crowded but that didn’t keep the children from finding Four.

“Can the others come out to play now?” one of the children from before begged Blue.

“Soon, soon,” he said in a frustrated but sincere tone, almost like that of a busy parent. “Give us all just a couple minutes, ok?”

“Ok!” cheered the children happily. Blue looked at the other heroes.

“Well, are you just gonna stand there or are you heading to the tournament? You gotta be there soon enough to get a good seat.” Blue was ready for them to leave. He needed some room to stretch his legs. HIS legs. His OWN legs. Not THEIR legs. HIS legs. And to do that these extras had to get a move on. “Oh. And who all wants to stay?” A few of them shrugged. But soon Wind, Wild, and Hyrule had made up their minds to stay with Four while the others went to see the sword tournament. 

The minute the older boys exitted the northern gate, Blue let out a laugh, he was about to just go for it, and pull out the sword, but Green had some business to attend to first. Fronting, Green took a deep breath, looked at the other heroes, and smiled.

“So,” he said. “About what the kids have been talking about. I’m going to share a secret with the three of you, but you guys have to promise not to tell any of the others, got it?” 

“Sure, why not?” Wind replied.

“We would never spill something you wanted to keep secret, Smithy,” Hyrule assured him.

“That’s right,” Wild agreed. “And you know I can keep a secret.” Green smiled. He and Wild had kept Twilight’s secret all this time, so he knew he could trust Wild. It was a shame Twi had gone to the tournament too. He’d have loved to show Twi what he was capable of, and the farm boy loved children, but- Green’s smile widened- he probably loved hanging out with Time even more. Green wished they had had something like Twi and Time did. Four’s relationship with their father was complicated to say the least.

“Ok well, here goes nothing,” he concluded with a shrug. Four drew the Four Sword and lifted it up to the sky. There was a quick flash of light, and when the teens looked back at their friend, he was quite literally four. 

“No way!” shouted Wind. “That’s so cool!” 

Meanwhile Green, Red, Blue, and Vio laid sprawled across the ground. Much like all the heroes had been only a few hours before.

“Yeah, we know we’re awesome, now give us a hand up, will ya?” Blue grumbled, back against the cobblestone street and left hand raised in the air. Wind nodded and promptly pulled Blue up, then Red. Green and Vio rose on their own.

“Yay! Now I can eat my sweets!” Red cheered happily before stumbling over to Wild who was carrying the bag from the bakery and snatching it from him with a smile spread across his face.

“Well, I promised the children a story,” Vio stated calmly. “I suppose you’re coming along?” The question was directed towards his Shadow on the ground, which- much to the surprise of their company- proceeded to move independently of Vio’s body and gave him a thumbs up. Green just laughed.

“So? What do you think?” he asked the other heroes. They had been silent with shock and had stood there for a moment with their jaws dropped. “This what you expected?”

“Not what I expected,” answered Hyrule. “But honestly… It explains a lot.”

“It’s pretty amazing, Smithy!” Wild exclaimed. “How does it work?”

“Uh, well,” Green struggled to explain briefly. “We all used to be one Link until the Four Sword split us the first time, and we’ve never quite been the same since.”

“Four different people,” remarked Wind. “Four people in one head. That’s gotta be really annoying!” The four looked at each other and shrugged.

“It is,” they replied in unison. 

It wasn’t long after they split that they were surrounded by town’s children eager to play. Wild, Rule, and Wind joined in readily. They ran and played festival games, told stories and acted them out, ate snacks, and raced down the lanes for hours. Meanwhile, the tournament was winding down, and the other heroes prepared to head back to town.

“Do we even know where they went off to?” Legend muttered under his breath. Time chuckled.

“I’m sure we’ll find them if we just follow the swarm of children,” he said. “It’s really amazing how much they seem to like the Smithy. I don’t blame them though, he’s got a good heart.”

“If you really want someone to go ahead and find them, I don’t mind running ahead,” the Captain offered. “It’s no trouble to me, and I’m interested in stopping by the Post Office to see that Swordsman Newsletter that Four mentioned anyways.” Time nodded in approval and Wars wandered off into town while the other heroes collected their things and took their time chatting. Suddenly, they heard the voice of a man coming from behind them.

“I thought I might find you here,” the man said with a chuckle. “And it seems my timing is impeccable as usual.” 

The heroes turned around to see a blond, probably middle aged, bearded knight who seemed oddly familiar. After a moment, Twi remembered Four’s comment from earlier that morning. This man must’ve been the Captain of the Guard.

“You’re the Smithy’s father,” Twilight stated as he held his hand out for the man to shake. He didn’t shake it but simply laughed.

“That I am,” said the man. “But I had hoped you’d recognize me for being, well, me and not for him. Can’t help that I supposed.” The realization hit Legend immediately.

“You blonde son of a b-” he began before being cut off.

“I knew I could count on you, Vet! Do remember you are blonde as well though.” Soon Sky, Twi, and Time’s brains caught up and they all looked at the man with a bit of shock.

“Captain?” whispered Sky.

******

When Wars reached the group of children gathered in town he couldn’t believe what he saw. Four was... well, split into four! Four different Smithies were out playing and conversing with the children underneath the sunset, and Wild, Wind, and Hyrule were simply treating this as normal. Had he missed something? The Blue Smithy looked like he was about to go into a full on panic mode after catching sight of Warriors, panic mode or attack mode. The Red and Green Smithies got him to cool down before he returned to entertaining the children. The Red Smithy made his way over to Wars.

“Hey, so uh…” he stuttered, not looking the Captain in the eye. “You weren’t really supposed to see this.

“So this is why we call you Four, huh?” the Captain replied. 

“Yeah,” Red answered. Dad wasn’t supposed to see that they were home. They didn’t want him to see them. That had been their focus this whole time. On top of that Wars wasn’t supposed to get any spoilers about their adventure because that might ruin their timeline- because Wars was Dad. Yet here they were, having failed that second bit, and probably the first now that future Dad would remember all this happening. Red looked around at the festival. It was getting dark. The lanterns would need to be lit soon. Suddenly, he had an idea. “Hey, Captain. Random question: do you still have Legend’s fire rod?”

“Yeah. Why?” Red smirked.

“I need a hand. Can you help me out?” 

It was quite possible today’s events might’ve changed Four’s whole history, so why not, thought Red, give Dad some good memories with us. Maybe, he thought. Maybe, that will give him less reason to be so hard on us. Maybe, since we’re already changing time, we can at least change our relationship with Dad for the better.

******

As the older heroes walked into town hand in hand with a future Wars, one they now knew to be Four’s father, the last thing they expected to see was what they saw. They didn’t see four Smithies. No, since the adults were all coming into town that fun had come to an end. Instead, they saw Four and Warriors running down cobblestone streets in the moonlight racing to light lamps faster than the other and laughing all the time, and rumor has it that at this sight, even Legend had a smile on his face.

“I’m glad you could all make the trip,” Four’s father commented quietly as they watched the teens run through the square. “I have a feeling it’ll turn out to be really good for that kid.” He smiled. “For my son too.”

**Author's Note:**

> (Just popping in to say I would squeal if someone drew the lamp lighting scene... that’s all)


End file.
